MONTREAL—Some three dozen of the 57 countries that make up La Francophonie, the global club of French-speaking nations, have emerged from the violent and repressive shackles of European colonialism. If Canada’s former governor general Michaëlle Jean has her way, a majority of those countries will step forward this fall to elect her as the organization’s next secretary general.

Not everyone is happy, however, that the one-time symbol of the British monarchy, a charismatic figure who has never suffered through a democratic election or ushered a law into being, is emerging as a top candidate for the job.

“Hard to imagine that an organization made up of 30 African countries and a majority of countries from the south who are proud of their independence would give themselves ... a personality whose only important function consisted of perpetuating a colonial symbol,” wrote Christian Rioux, the Paris correspondent for Montreal’s Le Devoir, in a scathing July 11 column.

If chosen for the post, the Haitian-born former journalist would have the ear of royalty in Monaco and Belgium as well as global decision-makers from France to the United Arab Emirates.

But the secretary general of the Francophonie also plays a role in negotiating conflicts in nations like the Central African Republic, which teeters on the brink of genocide, co-ordinating a response to the spreading Ebola outbreak in West Africa and weighing in on the challenges in some of the poorest pockets of the world.

“The majority of francophone countries in Africa, plus Haiti and Lebanon, are in crisis or coming out of them,” said Jocelyn Coulon, a political science professor at the University of Montreal.

“(The post of secretary general) is not about managing programs dealing with the French language or markets or the situation of women. It’s war and peace. So is she the right person for this type of thing? It’s the question that the heads of state have to ask.”

Jean’s chameleon qualities allowed her to transition from a worldly and respected Radio-Canada journalist to the ultimate, if largely ceremonial, arbiter of Canadian democracy. Her nomination in 2005 was sullied by a brief dust-up over her alleged sympathies for Quebec’s sovereignty movement. By 2009 she had erased any doubts when she appeared at Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa, alongside Prince Charles, in a striking military dress uniform.

A few months later when an earthquake ravaged Jean’s Haitian homeland, she marshalled the outpouring of Canadian support and helped put a human face to the tragedy.

Now, after founding a charitable organization and serving as chancellor at the bilingual University of Ottawa, Jean, who has been on a family vacation in France and declined an interview request, is in transformation for her next possible role. She is courting the key audience and preparing to defy the naysayers who cite a Francophonie tradition that holds that rich northern countries like France and Canada fund the organization and African nations get to say who runs it.

Shortly after her long-rumoured
candidacy for the post was confirmed
, Jean began targeting the votes of African nations, which will be crucial if she is to be elected at November’s annual meeting in Senegal.

“Africa itself runs deep within my veins, right through my blood,” she wrote on her Twitter account on July 12. “I am the unconditional daughter of this continent of all our origins.”

As a bon mot, it works. As a black Haitian, Jean understands Third World problems. Raised in Canada, she has a First World education, resumé and credibility. There have been many bon mots since about Africa, about the French language, about her 10 state visits to Africa while governor general and about economic development.

But it will take more than words to beat out her two main challengers: Pierre Buyoya, the former two-time president of Burundi, and Jean-Claude de l’Estrac, the former foreign minister of Mauritius, a tiny island about 2,300 kilometres east of Africa.

Buyoya may be the presumed front-runner to succeed current secretary general Abdou Diouf, the longtime president of Senegal. A military man who seized Burundi’s presidency in a 1987 coup, Buyoya is still recalled bitterly in some circles as a dictator, but he’s also been summoned repeatedly over the past decade to help resolve African conflicts, including those in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger, on behalf of the African Union and the Francophonie.

Since October 2012, he has been the African Union’s high representative for Mali and the 11 countries that make up the Sahel region, a part of the map racked by Islamic terrorism.

“There are many people inside and around the Francophonie who know me and have pushed the idea on me,” he told the Star by telephone from Bamako, Mali, about the origins of his campaign. “I began to think I might have legitimate ambitions of leading this organization.”

If elected, Buyoya would like to see the Francophonie take on a stronger voice on the world stage.

“It needs to be a dynamic organization and be able to adapt to the changes in the world — and God knows there have been many changes in the world.”

De l’Estrac, who currently serves as secretary general of the Indian Ocean Commission, wants to use the economic overhaul that has occurred in Mauritius over the past three decades as his Francophonie calling card.

“I am the candidate of a country that, 30 years ago, was one of the poorest countries on the planet. If this little country succeeded, the larger countries in the world can easily do it, and it’s about creating jobs,” he told the Star in a telephone interview from Comoros.

“I dream of a Francophonie of the economy ... At the root, the principal problems that explain war, hate and violence are poverty and social justice.”

Jean’s route to the current campaign, in which she is also emphasizing economic development for the poorer member states, stretches back to her world travels as representative of Canada’s head of state on which the post was suggested to her on several occasions.

And though she has beaten a largely apolitical path as a stand-in for the Queen or as the UNESCO representative for Haiti, her main backers in the Francophonie race — Canada, Quebec and New Brunswick — are driving a determined campaign.

In July, there were reports that Canada offered de l’Estrac a second-in-command post within the organization if he would drop out of the race. De l’Estrac himself would only say he has visited Canada, met with government officials and what they said were “private discussions.”

Ultimately, Coulon says, Jean’s globetrotting credentials may be the factor that fails her when the November vote approaches.

“(The Francophonie) is what I call the club of heads of state, the majority of which are African. When they meet they are used to dealing with someone who is one of their own,” he said.

“I don’t think having been governor general will take away from her candidacy, but it’s clear that for the Africans in particular being governor general of a country means nothing. If you’re president, you’re the boss. They know what that means … it’s the person who leads the country.”

Correction - August 5, 2014:
This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly referred to Michaelle Jean as Canada's head of state.

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